1. Field:
The present disclosure relates generally to an improved computer system, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for testing devices using a computer system. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for testing the display of graphical user interfaces on devices using the computer system.
2. Background:
Applications may be run on many different types of devices. These different types of devices may include, for example, a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a browser, a version of a browser, and other types of devices or displaying software.
These different types of devices have displays that have different sizes. With the different sizes, the manner in which an application displays information may be different between different types of devices. These different types of devices may also have different display software such as, for example, different browsers or different versions of the same browser. Additionally, some devices may have displays that change orientation. For example, a mobile phone may change between a landscape and a portrait orientation while the display on a desktop computer may not change orientations.
With the differently sized screens, different displaying software, and potentially different orientations, the manner in which applications display information may be different. For example, the same webpage may be displayed on the same type of browser on a mobile phone and a desktop computer. The manner in which the webpage is displayed, however, may be different between the mobile phone and the desktop computer.
In developing applications that are run on different types of devices, the applications are typically tested on the different types of devices prior to releasing the application to customers. For example, a browser with a webpage may be loaded onto a mobile phone, a tablet computer, and a desktop computer. The testing may involve loading and displaying the webpage using the browser on each of these devices.
The manner in which the webpage is displayed by the browser on these devices may then be observed to determine whether the browser displays the webpage in a desired manner. The testing of the webpage displayed in the browser on the device may include selecting links, changing the orientation on devices that have changeable orientations, and other suitable operations.
This type of testing may be more time-consuming than desired. For example, one or more human operators may load the web browsers and webpages on each of the devices that are to be tested. For example, when testing mobile phones, many different types of mobile phones may be tested that have different displays. Additionally, testing the manner in which an application displays information in response to user input occurs with an operator performing the same user input on each of the different devices. This type of testing is often tedious in addition to time-consuming.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues. For example, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that test applications on multiple types of devices more efficiently than currently possible.